A similar annoyance is writing a well-thought out forum post, pressing submit, and being told in some way that your session has expired.<p>Some sites you can go back to retrieve your post, others will just present you with a newly empty form.
Even better, get rid of your forms entirely, especially long forms with all kind of questions that you really don't need the answer to. Or have fields that are ambigious and improperly validated. Or multipage forms that have no way of going back without losing your filled in data.
Here's a quick User Script to get rid of them all:<p><a href="http://almostobsolete.net/noresetbuttons.html" rel="nofollow">http://almostobsolete.net/noresetbuttons.html</a><p>It should work as an extension in Chrome or with Firefox if you have Greasemonkey installed.
I used to think exactly the way the author did. I'd actually get agitated when I had to explain to the IA/Design departments <i>again</i> why this was such a bad idea. I won about half the time, usually with my argument driven solely by my ego. Being vehemently against any use of it under any condition I refused to accept that there was any appropriate use for it.<p>Then, I actually did some research.<p>First, there are instances where reset buttons have a place. From Jakob Nielsen's post <i>Reset</i> and <i>Cancel</i> Buttons (<a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000416.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000416.html</a>):
Reset can be useful for forms that satisfy both of the following criteria:<p>- the form is filled-in repeatedly by the same user<p>- the data to be entered differs significantly from one use of the form to the next<p>For cancel buttons, my "never ever" opinion was flawed because I refused to see the reset or cancel button from the viewpoint of users unlike myself. I spend a lot of time building these things (as most of you do). I know how forms work. After actually sitting down with users that don't, and people that don't spend that much time online, I found another thing to be true: People are afraid that form data will be submitted even if you hit the back button. They want the Cancel button to ensure their data won't be collected against their will.<p>A point the article makes but then ignores is the button's layout & design. Layout for these buttons is key. If they have to be used, they shouldn't inputs or buttons. I've found that the best design for these is a plain text Reset or Cancel link that's opposite the Submit or Next button. An alert is also key. Using one can instill confidence, assuring the user that their information will be cleared and not submitted.<p>However, there are a number of reasons these buttons could fade out of use, not limited to the following:<p>- Users are becoming more familiar with the way the web works. They understand that form data isn't submitted until a submit button is clicked. Because of this, forms are generally a trusted interactive element.<p>- With the widespread use of AJAX, it's only a matter of time before form data is collected in the user session before a submit button is clicked. It's already being used in some places to track successful conversions & Lead Dropouts (Sitecore OMS is one). If this becomes common, forms will revert to being less trusted. <i>Reset</i> and <i>Cancel</i> buttons won't fix this, though.<p>The rule I follow is much the same as it's always been: Don't use <i>Cancel</i> or <i>Reset</i> buttons. Though now, I understand the exceptions and plan accordingly. Think about the target audience for each specific form and include the appropriate functionality.
Good example of implementing a feature because it's easy to do, rather than because it has real utility. Why it's part of the HTML form spec I don't know. Was it ever useful?
This seems to ignore the case where a form is pre-filled with previously inputed info or some defaults. It feels more natural to clear the form and write all fields with new infos than to overwrite everying field by field.<p>now it's a long time I haven't seen a useful reset button.
There's only one thing worse than having a Reset button: putting it next to the Save button<p><a href="http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pmfh3uGxAv9cSUByhqbbSCkirapVCTAC8pp92VsbMmx6TPvgLoib3Adyi3zGxjc2pF6_1c-MAFvY_IYW1OmBilA/SaveButton.jpg?psid=1" rel="nofollow">http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pmfh3uGxAv9cSUByhqbbSC...</a>
A good point, one that needs paying attention to.<p>> There are lots of guides on website usability, go and find one for yourself.<p>... some of which should tell you that having an automatically scrolling display right next to something you (supposedly) want people to <i>read</i>, is a bad idea.
Reset buttons can be useful in CRUD applications when you want to "clear all changes" in an existing record - everything gets reverted to the field values in the HTML.<p>Admittedly, I don't use them much, usually going with a "Cancel/Close" link that takes the user out of the record-editing view.
They still exist and I've pressed them just before thumping the desk.<p>Is there a greasemonkey script to get the browser to ignore them; are there extensions for any browser to do this without greasemonkey?<p>or with a user stylesheet?<p>input[.reset]{display:none;}
what is the right css? I haven't used it in a while?
In Messaging on the Facebook app on Android, you have Send on the left and Clear on the right. Gets me far too often, and it's just not even necessary. If I don't want to send what I started writing, I simply hit back. Hate it.
Am I the only one who would love to somehow switch the "submit" and "reset" buttons on this guy on some random website just to see what sort of anger you could incite? Imagine that blog post...
Dear Cats on the internet,
please spellcheck your posts and proofread them before you post your rants to the internet. Otherwise some people might think they are unpleasant to read and possibly wont take them serious.<p>If you have a "related reading" section you might want to also use it to post some links to those guides. We are here to help each other, aren't we?<p>And: No, I don't use reset buttons.